Dog lovers rescue injured puppy on the beaches of Goa

A British couple have spent more than £2,300 on bringing home a disabled puppy after falling in love with the dog while on holiday in India.

Indy the dog has no use of her back legs after being attacked as a small puppy, but after a nine-month process, she is now enjoying UK life on her very own set of wheels.

Angela and Ian Szczypka, from Benfleet, Essex, fell in love with the dog during a visit to a rescue centre in Goa, west India, in December 2014.

Heartbreaking: Indy the dog, pictured as a small puppy in Goa, had lost the use of her back legs after being attacked by another dog, and lived in a rescue centre when the Angela and Ian Szczypka found her

Indy, now 18 months old, had lost the use of her back legs after a fight with another dog, and when the couple found her, she was moving by dragging her legs behind her.

The couple have already spent thousands on Indy, which includes her time in an Indian daycare centre, flights, vet bills, her wheelchair and other equipment including a special pair of trainers.

But there is hope that the 18-month-old dog may one day be able to walk again, after vets discovered that her back is not completely torn off, and that she can still wag her tail.

Mr and Mrs Szczypka, who have their own smallholding of animals back at home, were so moved by the sight of Indy that they returned to volunteer at the centre every day until they left.

Mrs Szczypka, 29, described the moment she and her husband locked eyes on the sorry pup.

Happy days: Nine months after the couple met Indy and decided to adopt her, the puppy arrived in the UK and was given a specially made 'wheelchair'

Chance meet: Angela and Ian Szczypka fell in love with Indy after meeting her at the rescue centre in Goa, west India, while they were in the country on holiday in December 2014

She said: 'We went to India at Christmas in 2014 for a month. We were going to go for a nice relaxing beach holiday. But we saw photos of an animal rescue centre and we wanted to go and visit.

'We've got a smallholding here in the UK with chickens, rabbits, dogs, cats. So we like our animals.

'We were quite shocked by what we saw there. It was basically this big compound. They were all fed and looked after there, but it was quite graphic.

'Indy was the saddest looking dog there. She had had a broken back, so was just dragging her back legs around. We were told she'd been attacked by a bigger dog.

'Coming from England we'd never seen a dog in a state like that before. There were trails of bloody where we was dragging her legs along the concrete, and flies were following her around.

'She was just a frightened little dog that sat in the corner. Other puppies were hanging on her back legs. It was just terrible.'

The 29-year-old mother-of-one told of how she and her husband developed a relationship with the injured dog.

She said: 'We went to the rescue centre every day to volunteer and walk the dogs for a few hours every morning.